╔═════ ∘◦ ☽ ﾐ ◦∘ ══════╗
𝗠𝗢𝗢𝗡𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧
𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓽𝓮𝓷:
"𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚒𝚏 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚟𝚎𝚌𝚗𝚊 𝚊𝚕𝚕
𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐?"
╚═════ ∘◦ ミ ☾ ◦∘ ══════╝
MACKENZIE SAT ON the arm of the couch in Mike Wheeler's living room. Squished on the couch next to her were Lucas, Max, and Dustin. All of their gazes were either focused on the floor or at the various people in the room. Mackenzie, personally, was staring at the floor, her arms crossed across her chest.
Standing in the room were Chief Powell, Officer Callahan, two other police officers, Karen Wheeler, Ted Wheeler, Claudia Henderson, Sue Sinclair, Charles Sinclair, Erica Sinclair, Elizabeth Tate, and Megan Tate. Mackenzie could practically feel the stares of her mother and little sister burning into the side of her face. She decided to ignore it as the officers questioned them.
"And what exactly were you all doing at the lake?" Chief Powell asked.
Mackenzie tucked some hair behind her ear, trying to stay calm. When she had come up with her plan of distracting the cops, she didn't exactly think of what they would do if they got caught. So their story was just . . . not there.
"Uh . . ." Dustin trailed off quietly. "It's compli—"
"We were — we were just going for a walk," Max interrupted.
"A walk?" Officer Callahan repeated. "At nine P.M.?"
"To the lake," Dustin added, his voice going up extremely high. Officer Callahan gave him a look. "We were gonna . . . take a little swim. Little night swim."
Mackenzie did her best to not close her eyes and let out a breath of frustration like she so desperately wanted to. Seriously, who was going to believe that? Especially since Dustin's voice was basically up another octave.
"Dusty," Claudia voiced. "Someone was just murdered there."
"Yeah, we — we didn't realize that until we got there," Dustin replied.
"That's why we didn't swim," Lucas told them.
"And Nancy, was she with you at this night swim?" Karen questioned.
"No," Max answered.
"Yes," Dustin said at the exact same time. "Uh . . ."
"Jesus Christ," Mackenzie muttered to herself, because this was just a mess.
"We're not sure," Lucas revealed.
"She was there," Dustin responded. "And then she left. It's all a little confusing."
"And that's when you guys came," Lucas continued.
Mackenzie nodded, deciding to act her part. "Uh-huh. Then they dared Max and I to yell what we yelled to you."
Lucas laughed, but it was clearly faked. "Oh yeah."
"About the killer," Max added over Lucas and Dustin's laughter.
"You're lucky you didn't get shot," Ted replied.
"Have you had any contact with Eddie?" Chief Powell inquired.
"That psycho . . . freak killer?" Dustin asked, trying to sound very incredulous and disgusted but failing miserably. "God, no. Nope."
"No, we haven't heard from him," Max stated.
"Nope. Absolutely not."
"We barely know the guy," Lucas voiced.
Dustin nodded. "Who?"
Erica then stepped forwards, her arms crossed across her chest. "Oh, that's a bunch of bull."
"Erica!" Sue and Charles scolded their daughter.
"No, Erica's right," Megan insisted, making Mackenzie look at her little sister. "They're lying. Blatantly. The whole couch is practically on fire."
"Megan, that's enough," Elizabeth protested.
"Erica and I are telling the truth!"
Claudia looked at Dustin. "Are you lying to these policemen, Dusty?"
"No!" Dustin shouted in a very high-pitched voice.
"Lying to the cops is a crime, son," Charles said to Lucas.
"I'm not lying!" Lucas exclaimed.
"The fire is consuming us," Erica interrupted.
"Threaten them with a little jail time," Ted suggested, making Mackenzie's eyes widen. "Maybe that'll loosen their lips."
"Okay—" Dustin began.
Elizabeth's head whirled to look at Ted. "I am not allowing our kids to be sent to jail, Ted."
"We need to take this seriously," Ted insisted.
"He didn't mean it like that," Karen protested.
Suddenly, multiple arguments started to fill the living room, voices overlapping one another's. Through it all, Mackenzie looked at her little sister. Her eyes were glaring at Megan, asking why she didn't cover for her. Megan only rolled her eyes and shook her head. Mackenzie let out a breath of exasperation and leaned back further on the couch.
Chief Powell stood up and raised his voice. "Shut up!" All of them went silent. "We're gonna try a more civilized approach. One at a time." He pointed to Max. "You first."
"Wait, what?" Max questioned. "Why me?"
"Follow me."
"I'm not even in the Hellfire club!"
"Do I need to cuff you?" Officer Callahan threatened. "Up. Chop-chop. Let's go."
"Good luck," Mackenzie whispered as Max stood up to follow Chief Powell.
Max gave her a tight smile before walking off. Mackenzie honestly felt like she was suffocating in the extremely tense atmosphere of the living room, so she decided to leave. Ignoring the burning gazes of her mother and her sister, she went out to the kitchen. Mackenzie grabbed a can of Dr. Pepper out of the fridge and hopped up on the island, opening the can as she sat. Lucas joined her in the kitchen while Dustin went to the bathroom to try and contact the group on the boat with his Walkie.
She started to think. Robin had said Steve found the Gate. Underwater, obviously. But there was no way they were still out on the boat if they had found the Gate so quickly. They would've been somewhere in the forest, getting away from the Gate. Mackenzie had a really bad feeling about all of this.
Dustin then came back, brushing past Holly who was carrying her Lite-Brite. He put his Walkie down and rested his elbows on the counter.
"Anything?" Lucas inquired.
"Nothing," Dustin answered.
Mackenzie took another sip of her soda. "Guys . . . I really think they went through."
"Through Watergate? Without us? Without a plan? Without weapons? They wouldn't be that stupid."
"I'm not so sure about that."
"They must just be laying low 'cause the law got us," Dustin reassured her.
"The law?" Erica repeated, strolling into the kitchen with a juice box. Mackenzie thought it was a miracle that she wasn't with Megan — those two were always together. "What is this, Gunsmoke? The Stupid and the Ugly? Should I round up the posse? Saddle the horses?"
"Erica," Lucas interjected. "Please, just go away."
"Here's the deal. Either you tell me what's happening, or I tell Dustin and Kenzie what I found under your bed."
Lucas suddenly looked terrified. "Please, no."
"Spill your guts, cowpuncher," Erica urged.
Mackenzie's eyebrows knit in confusion and she looked down at Lucas. "What are you hiding under your bed, Lucas?"
"Nothing," Lucas let out.
Dustin glanced at Erica. "Is it gross?" Erica nodded. "Scale of one to ten."
"A hundred," Erica responded.
Mackenzie gasped. "A hundred? Lucas, you dog."
"The serial killer is a dark wizard from the Upside Down," Lucas said quickly, making Mackenzie slightly laugh at how urgent he was to change the subject. "And we've been looking for him, but he's in the Upside Down, which we can't reach. At least we thought we couldn't, until we found a Gate at Lover's Lake. That was the reason why we were there, but these stupid cops grabbed us. And if you tell anyone about this, that's including mom and dad and Tina and Megan . . . especially Megan, I . . . will smother you in your sleep. Do you understand?"
"I heard my name," Megan announced, and all of them turned to see that she had entered the kitchen after standing in the living room with the others. Oh, there she was. "What's the matter?
"Nothing, Megan," Mackenzie replied, trying to keep her voice calm. She hopped off of the island. "Go back into the living room."
"No," Megan refused, crossing her arms. "I want to be included in this conversation, considering that I literally heard you talking about me."
"We weren't talking about you," Dustin told her. "We were talking about something else."
Megan walked further into the kitchen. "Well, can you tell me what this something else is?"
"No, we can't," Mackenzie voiced.
"I know you guys weren't at the lake to go swimming. So what we're you doing there? And why have you been disappearing for hours on end, especially now with all of these murders?"
"It's a really, really long story. One that we don't have time to tell, and a story that I don't want you to know. So Megan, go."
"No!" Megan exclaimed. "I'm tired of being confused on what's happening in this town, and something's telling me you have the answers. So just tell me."
"If I tried to tell you everything that we've seen the past couple of years, you would not believe me," Mackenzie insisted. "Besides, I don't want you getting caught up in this mess, Meg."
"Erica is," Megan protested.
"Unfortunately," Erica muttered.
"I'm not arguing with you about this," Mackenzie said. "Right now, there's a choice for you to be blissfully kept in the dark or for you to know a lot of crazy shit. And I'm making the right one by keeping you in the dark."
"That's not your decision to make!" Megan shouted.
"Megan, end of discussion," Mackenzie stated firmly.
"No, not end of discussion!" Megan shouted, anger seeping into her tone. "You have been so secretive these past three years! How you're always out with your friends, how you clung to Will more than ever before, how you end up at places you shouldn't be! Why were you at that mall fire?"
Mackenzie hesitated for a moment. "I can't tell you."
"Again with the secrets! Why do you keep lying, Mackenzie? We're supposed to tell each other the truth!"
Mackenzie paused. She stared down at her little sister, who had both sadness and anger shadowing across her face. Throughout the past couple of years, Mackenzie wanted nothing more than to stop lying to her little sister. But she wouldn't allow Megan to see the things she's seen. Megan's strong, but Mackenzie didn't want Megan to have all of the lasting trauma that she did.
"Hawkins isn't a normal town, Meg," Mackenzie explained softly. "The things that have happened here are dangerous. More dangerous than you know. All I want to do is keep you safe."
"Then why are you involved in all this dangerous stuff?" Megan demanded. "I want you to be safe, too."
Mackenzie felt a pain in her heart, but she ignored it. "Megan, please. I'm not going to ask you again. Go."
Megan stared at her, hurt flashing across her face. "Fine."
Mackenzie let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding in as Megan left the room. She felt extremely guilty of the way that had just gone down, but if it kept her out of this whole thing, then so be it. Mackenzie reached up and pushed her hair behind her ears, staring down at her can of soda, not really wanting to see the sympathetic gazes of the others.
Lucas then pointed at Erica. "You. Do you understand?"
Erica placed her chin in her hand. "Hmm . . ."
Lucas leaned forwards. "Erica? Do you copy?"
"The smothering in my sleep part, but not much else. Why would they open up a Gate at Lover's Lake?"
"What?"
"The commies," Erica voiced.
Lucas stood up straighter. "The commies didn't do this."
"Then who did?"
"Nobody."
"So it just opened up for fun?" Erica inquired.
"Erica, you have no idea what you're talking about," Lucas argued.
"No, she doesn't, yet she raises an essential question," Dustin admitted. "How did Watergate open up? Only two Gates have opened, so far as we know. One by El, one by the commies. But it's not the commies or El this time, so it . . ." He suddenly stopped, a look of realization coming onto his face. "Holy shit. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, what?" Lucas asked.
"Share with the rest of the class, Dustin," Mackenzie encouraged.
"There's one thing we've never understood, which is why Vecna's killing people," Dustin told them, starting to walk slowly around the kitchen. "What's his motive? Killing teens? It always just seemed too random. Too prosaic. On top of that, how does the Mind Flayer figure into all of this? Maybe this is it. This is the answer."
"What is the answer?" Lucas questioned.
Karen then came in with one of the police officers, offering him a drink. Dustin nodded his head, and Mackenzie, Lucas, and Erica walked up to him. They all stood in the front walkway of the house by the front door and the stairs.
"Okay, just hear me out," Dustin pleaded. "How did El open the Mothergate?"
"She contacted the Demogorgon," Lucas answered.
Dustin tapped the side of his head. "With psychic contact. Just like . . ."
Mackenzie's eyes widened. "Vecna. He uses psychic contact when he casts his spells, right?"
"Exactly. So, what if, with each kill, he's not simply killing them, he's making a powerful psychic connection with his victims? A connection powerful enough to rip a hole in the fabric of time and space."
"He's opening more Gates," Lucas realized.
"Bingo," Dustin replied.
Another cop then walked by, talking on his radio. Dustin waved them on, and the group of four moved into the dining room.
"Why would he be opening Gates?" Dustin asked.
"To take over the world," Lucas stated.
"And who do we know that wants to take over the world?"
"The Mind Flayer."
"So if the Demogorgon was just his foot soldier, Vecna's his five-star general," Dustin continued. "A five-star general with the power to open Gates."
"Holy shit," Mackenzie commented.
Lucas nodded. "Holy shit."
"Holy shit," Dustin agreed.
"Holy shit, that was incomprehensible," Erica cut in. "You lost me at Mothergate. Please be kind, rewind."
"Okay, so you remember the Gate?"
"Oh, no. I blocked that out."
Mackenzie, Lucas, and Dustin then started to take turns telling Erica about the whole thing. How El had opened the Gate in Hawkins Lab by touching the Demogorgon, causing a huge Gate to open. Mothergate. That Gate grew exponentially, which is how the Mind Flayer got through and inhabited Will. El had closed the Gate, but the part that they had gotten out of Will (his screams still haunted Mackenzie) stayed in Hawkins. It inhabited Billy, and the Mind Flayer grew. And the Russians had used a giant laser underneath Starcourt Mall to open a new Gate to the Upside Down. Vecna had now come months after the defeat of the Mind Flayer, killing three teens in Hawkins by snapping their bones and sucking their eyes out. Eddie got caught up in this whole mess by being there when Chrissy died, and now they all got sucked back into the mess that was the Upside Down. They had gone to Vecna's house after Max got attacked and used the lights to follow Vecna around until they finally reached the attic.
All of them had migrated to the kitchen table during all of this. However, as Dustin talked, Mackenzie couldn't help but feel like there was a bigger motive behind all of this. Vecna was evil, pure evil. So were the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer, but he took it to the next level. Dustin had said that the Mind Flayer was behind all this, but Mackenzie felt differently. She couldn't help but notice that the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer seemed like the build up.
"Wait," Mackenzie protested, interrupting Dustin's question about how and why there was a Gate at Lover's Lake. "What if this isn't the Mind Flayer's doing? What if it was Vecna all along?"
Dustin stared at her blankly. "What?"
"You said that the Mind Flayer's five star general was Vecna, right? But what if it was the other way around? What if Vecna used the Demogorgon to start out, and then used the Mind Flayer because it was more powerful . . . but when he realized El was more powerful, he decided to go after everyone himself?"
"So, you're saying that Vecna's just been sending these things out to do his dirty work for him?" Lucas asked.
Mackenzie nodded rapidly. "Exactly. And while we were fighting the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer, he was still in the Upside Down, getting stronger, so that he could fight in the end." Her mind started to go in circles, and her eyes suddenly widened in realization. "Will."
"Will?" Erica repeated. "You're thinking about your boyfriend right now?"
"Shut up, Erica," Mackenzie replied, no malice in her tone. She looked at all of them. "It wasn't the Demogorgon who took Will that night."
Dustin's blinked. "You think it was Vecna."
"You saw the Demogorgon, it would've eaten anyone the chance it got to, and he didn't eat Will when he tried to hide in his shed. And it also wasn't the Mind Flayer himself choosing Will to possess. It was him who kidnapped Will and told the Mind Flayer what to do. It's been Vecna this whole time. And remember how Will survived? He kept singing his favorite song."
"Mackenzie . . . you're a genius," Lucas said slowly.
"We've won the battles with the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer," Mackenzie explained. "But Vecna's coming for the war. This whole thing started with Will, and . . ." Her voice broke off, her expression saddening. "What if it ends with him?"
"No," Dustin voiced. "No, Kenzie, you can't think like that. Right now, we have to focus on Vecna, okay?"
She let out a deep breath. "Okay."
"So our working theory is that Vecna makes remote contact from his attic," Dustin continued to explain to Erica, finally reaching the end of their saga. "We don't know why. We assume he can do it from anywhere." He sat down next to Erica, who was staring at something. "Are you even listening to me?"
"Yeah, I'm listening," Erica responded, standing up from her chair. "It's just . . . you said you followed Vecna through the lights, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Because I think he's here."
Mackenzie looked up and immediately got up from her chair. The lights on the ceiling by the front door were flickering rhythmically.
Dustin seemed to recognize the pattern and walked up to the lights. "S . . . O . . . S. Hey, uh, remember when I said they wouldn't be stupid enough to go through Watergate?"
"Yeah?" Lucas replied.
Dustin looked back at them. "I overestimated them."
Mackenzie sighed. "Told you."
☾ ★ ☽
kenzie in hawkins: "will my boyfriend ❤️"
will in california: "how the FUCK am I gonna break up with mack"
lol I promise that their breakup will be more serious & it won't be heartbreaking because it'll be a coming out scene but this is SO hilarious to me